Special Report: Incessant plastic pollution kills one, threatens more lives on Nigeria’s waterway
The boat driver could not dodge all the plastics in the river, and before he realised there were hidden floating plastics beneath the water surface, he lost control of his boat, which was loaded with passengers and the boat capsized.
January 25, 2024 2:15am
On October 8, 2023, a commercial boat driver in Port Harcourt with over a decade of experience was driving from Bonny sea to Port Harcourt, in southern Nigeria, when his boat propeller became entangled in plastic waste inside the river, causing his boat to capsize and kill one woman. Until January 2024, the driver was incapacitated and shocked by the incident because, before they could rush the woman to the hospital, she vomited and died, which led to his being arrested by state police and later released after spending hundreds of naira on bail.
The Bonny Sea sees dozens of foreign and local vessels pass through daily and research shows it has a maximum width of 2km and a maximum depth of about 15m near its mouth.
The boat driver did not, on sight, notice the plastics in the river, and before he realised there were floating plastics beneath the water, he lost control of his boat, which was loaded with passengers and the boat capsized, according to Captain Ebiwei Sylvanus, a witness who doubles as a boat driver.
Sylvanus told The Colonist Report Africa (TCRAfrica) that plastic pollution is a major concern for boat drivers and passengers travelling through the Bonny and Port Harcourt rivers because most plastics in the river that cause accidents are not visible on the water’s surface. He recalls his early years of driving on the Bonny sea; there was hardly any plastic waste that disrupted their journey but the situation is now increasing.
Sylvanus continued, “As a driver if you don’t hold your boat well, the plastics in the river will turn (capsize) your boat. “A little sack bag in the river, a cellophane bag, plastic bottles can hook your engine.”
Describing the October 8 incident, Sylvanus explains, saying that when the driver arrived on the Dutch island, plastic waste in the water held the boat and caused it to tumble.
“The fuel poured out, and as they [passengers and driver] tried to calm themselves and start the engine, the driver noticed one person was missing from the boat.
Before the driver got under the boat to bring the person, the lady was unconscious, so they [drivers and passengers] began calling for external backup through other boats’ drivers who were driving with their passengers, according to Sylvanus.
“When I got to the river, the boat had already tumbled, so I went to bail the water and get the boat to float.”
Ongoing problems for boat drivers
Nigerian plastics production continued to increase, and as a result, more non-biodegradable materials are being produced and used and some end up in the river. The country alone in 2022 produced a plastic waste of 2.5 million tons and has been ranked ninth globally for the highest contribution of plastic pollution.
Boat drivers now live in fear while driving on the waters because of the excess polymer product found beneath and on the surface waterways.
Wariboko Inebia, the incumbent secretary of the Marine Base to Okirika Waterway Transport, told The Colonist Report Africa that plastic pollution continues to affect drivers plying in Okrika and Marine Base water and that “plastic is putting our lives at risk.”
“Plastic pollution is a very serious issue for the drivers running the waterway transportation,” Inebia said, and he continued, “Plastic pollution is putting lives at big risk because not all plastic pollution is floating on the surface of the water for drivers to avoid.”
Dirt poured into the river is the major reason plastics are found in the river, according to Inebia, and this makes driving on the waterways difficult.
“Plastics is very risky to us as drivers and also to passengers, said Miebaka Godwill, another boat driver from the Marine Base and Okrika routes. Driving on the river means “carefully focusing” on the river while driving, as “some plastic that is under the water might enter the engine and capsize the boat.”
Local commercial boat drivers have made various efforts to clean the waterways to reduce plastic pollution but the problem persists.
The Bonny and Nembe beach manager, who preferred not to be named, stated that his union had organised river sanitation, and fuel was bought for the union boat drivers to sweep the river. Several plastic wastes were removed from the river and stored on the land, but more plastics continued to enter the river, disrupting their activities, he said.
“We pack all the plastic and keep it on the island and later burn it off, yet to no avail.
“The plastic pollution is still on because we don’t know where the problem is coming from,” he told The Colonist Report Africa.
Global campaigns have opposed single-use and non-biodegradable plastics, which pollute rivers, oceans, and seas and kill fish and other aquatic life. It takes more than 20 years for non-biodegradable plastic to decompose, which depends on the material used. The fishing and shipping industries have been accused of throwing 1.75 tonnes of plastic directly into the ocean, and 51 trillion microscopic pieces of plastic weighing 269,000 tonnes enter the ocean each year.
Combating plastic waste on waterways
Boat drivers at the Marine Base and Okrika water claimed to have stopped people throwing plastic waste into the river, “but the response we get from people is that there is no place to trash their waste except the river,” says Godwill.
It is unfortunate that plastics have begun to kill people, but the statistics of plastic pollution in Nigeria show that we will get there, says Salisu Abdullahi, founder of E-trash2Cash, an organisation that provides cash in exchange for plastic waste or social benefits.
In September 2021, the Nigerian government joined the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership, along with Indonesia, Ghana, and Vietnam, to strengthen national efforts to combat plastic pollution. As of May 2023, the World Economic Forum and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) have pledged their support for Nigeria’s efforts to combat plastic pollution.
According to Abdullahi, large amounts of plastic generated in Nigeria are not properly collected from the environment, resulting in waste on the land and polluting the marine ecosystem.
He wants the government to conduct effective grassroots awareness campaigns for local communities to understand the effects and dangers of plastic pollution, adding that the government should support local plastic collectors who give money in exchange for plastic.
The funding to the social enterprises to scale their work will make a difference, he continued, and “it is a way to maintain a clean environment, create green jobs, and assist low-income people in earning additional income.”
Dr. William Iyama, Councillor, Waste Management Association of Nigeria, told The Colonist Report Africa that plastic pollution in Rivers State has decreased due to sensitization, and people are now more aware of their plastic waste, but the challenge has been the inland waterways where the plastic settles.
Iyama noted that the problem is the blockage of drainages and people ends up throwing plastic into the river, which blocks the drainages. “And most of these plastics find their way into the ocean and we end up eating them.”
The main issue facing boat operators, according to Iyama, is that plastic ruins their engines. Sanitization along the coast is the only way to get rid of the plastic debris that ends up floating in the waterways.
Editing by Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi
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